1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems for providing telephone toll services such as, but not limited to, directory assistance or long-distance calling.
2. Description of Prior Art
The need for phone customers to locate the name, address and number of businesses such as airlines, floral shops and auto repair shops has been around for almost as long as the phone has been in existence.
Currently most phone systems charge extra for the look up of the names and addresses and numbers of general or specific businesses. This can get to be costly and many telephone customers find such directory assistance charges to be excessive.
There is also a current need for many businesses to market to a wide pool of consumers with targeted advertisement. This can be done efficiently through the use of SIC codes or “Standard Industry Codes.” By knowing exactly what a particular consumer is looking for at that particular moment a company can target their scope of interest with an ad.
The use of advertisements within a telephone system is well known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,007 by Marino is for a “Telephone toll service with advertising”. It is a system for providing an economical telephone toll service in which a telephone subscriber selects the economical service by, for example, sending an appropriate signal, and then dials his directory assistance call or other telephone toll call. After the caller's options are determined, and typically before signaling for the call is commenced, a recorded-announcement of an aural or visual nature is connected to the subscriber's line, with the announcement consisting of at least one advertisement. The advertisements are selected from a databank according to some predetermined technique of selection, which may include any number of factors or features to make the service attractive to subscribers and of a nature to make the service also sufficiently rewarding to advertisers. The advertisement is not however, tied to the caller's specific interests or SIC code based on the number dialed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,625 by Lederman is a “Telephone advertising method and apparatus.” It is a method and apparatus for routing a telephone call through a telephone network from a caller to a called party designated by the caller via advertising service apparatus that operates in two modes successively, the parties being in communication with each other in one mode and ads are selected from storage during that mode and the ads are impressed on one or both of the parties during a different mode. Selection of ad messages for use is controlled by many criteria. Delivery of the advertisements is recorded for accounting purposes. The modes may alternate between message intervals whose duration is determined by ad message length and communication intervals whose length is determined by a talking time timer. Still there is a need for better selection criteria.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,775 by Hidary is a “Cellular telephone advertising system.” It discloses a cellular telephone system, which is provided with an ad server and a memory for holding various commercial messages. The messages are either generic or are tailored for specific demographically selected subscribers or geographic cells. When communication is established either between a subscriber or a nonsubscriber, at least one of them receives either a generic or a specific commercial message. These advertisements are not geared to the needs of a particular caller.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,784 by Blen is an “Automatic telephone advertising provided in lieu of dial-tone.” This invention discloses a telephone advertising service providing a short advertising message through a telephone receiver as a telephone call is initiated. Several different messages are offered in different sets of channels, with the messages changing depending on the time of day. When a prohibit service signal is active, the subscriber line is switched directly to the telephone exchange. These messages are not targeted towards the interests of a particular caller.
There is still room for improvement within the art.